End of day

Last post for the day: where the hell did COB (close of business) come from? I find myself saying it now too, but five years ago, before I’d moved to DC, I’d never heard of it. Is it just a DC thing?? And why not EOD (end of day) instead?

4 Comments so far

I used to see/hear COB when I was in Albany, NY and the Boston area as well. I never heard of this before moving north from Raleigh in 1999. Back home, when we wanted something by COB, we said, "today." It’s a whole lot more friendly-like and direct.

I think COB is a general business term; while I admit I heard it more in DC than anywhere else I’ve worked. As for EOD, it’s customary to use COB to mean the end of the work-day (sometimes with a time-zone addendum) and to use EOD to virtually mean by the start of business the next day.